Will Brooches Save Men's Fashion? Maybe... Not
As awards season returns, actors are making a loud bid at more interesting menswear.
Watching any award show feels like a familiar procession these days: Celebrities parade down the red carpet before the night begins in a sea of dresses, offering exciting looks at custom pieces by major designers and emerging ones alike. Sometimes, couples make their debut... or walk apart. And then, without fail, there are always the actors wearing black tuxedos and suiting, devoid of any fantastical details but the subtlety in craft to make their perfectly tailored jackets and trousers. Red carpets excite viewers through their sartorial newness, which is why menswear often gets a side eye, though actors and stylists are noticeably trying to spruce it up. At this year's Golden Globes, the men's brooch made its mark once again as an attempt to save menswear from being too boring.
Let's face it: There are many ways to diversify evening dresses, but tuxes, on the other hand, are limited in their scope. Designers and stylists might experiment with smaller tweaks in color and texture, but they largely remain the same. Could the secret to the perfect red carpet menswear look be a reimagined version of an item tucked away in a grandmothers' jewelry box?
The brooch has been the answer lately to the age-long dilemma of how to spice up a traditional black tie look. These aren't anything new, but they're certainly getting new life breathed into them. Adrien Brody led the charge Sunday night with a sculptural brooch that was magnificent in both size and detail, pinned to his Thom Browne ensemble. The actor took home the Golden Globe for Best Actor In a Motion Picture—Drama, but he also takes home the prize for best "bro-brooch," as reporter Guy Trebay coined in his New York Times article in 2024. (Brody is known to accessorize with the jewelry item, which he's done on various red carpets throughout the years.)
Brooches were being more than just repurposed at the 2025 Golden Globes, as Hollywood's most powerful actors, directors, producers and more sported them on their lapels for the big night. Plenty of other stars embraced the look on the red carpet, like Sebastian Stan (who opted for a rather small one), Colman Domingo, and Dwayne Johnson. (Notably, some other men tried making their looks more interesting with more extreme pops of color and accessories like Jeremy Strong's bright seafoam Loro Piana look with none other than a bucket hat.)
What is most exciting about this rise of brooches in menswear is the way that it plays on traditional gendered fashion. It calls to something that Susan Sontag wrote in her seminal 1964 essay, "Notes on Camp," about the beauty of gendered subversion: "What is the most beautiful in virile men is something feminine; what is most beautiful in feminine women is something masculine," Sontag penned. This jewelry item, which was initially created for function, has become one of fashion's reigning methods of adornment. More than ever, celebrities seem to be turning to it to up the menswear ante.
Will brooches save men's fashion? Maybe. Maybe not. Decide based on how celebrities wore it at the 2025 Golden Globes, kicking off awards season, by clicking through the gallery below.
